Netherfriends – “Bloomington, IN” from the upcoming Middle America

It takes a certain kind of musician, a certain kind of person to look at an apartment lease up for renewal as an invitation to pack up a life and hit the road with a seemingly impossible goal – to play a show in every State in the US, meet like-minded musicians along the way and record an original song dedicated, in some way, to a city in that State.

In April of 2010, that’s precisely what Netherfriends, the sometimes band/constant musical project of Shawn Rosenblatt, did. The tour began in Philadelphia and ended in Hawaii in April, 2011 and next month the first official release of that effort, Middle America will see a proper release through Kilo Records.

A tree city with a population of 80, 405, Bloomington is a fine place to record a rolicking indie jam with hints of tropicalia. Rosenblatt possibly wrote “Bloomington, IN” deep into his 50 state adventure (just a theory), which could explain the lyric “then maybe one day music wouldn’t take up all my time / and I could feel like every guy”…these songs are not supposed to be dedications to the locales, but something about Bloomington encouraged Rosenblatt to yearn for the carefree times. The mayor of Bloomington would be wise to make this the official song of the city.

Netherfriends is the inexhaustable brainchild of Shawn Rosenblatt. Mr. Rosenblatt has one interest and a ruthless dedication to that interest, which has left him jobless and homeless. But that’s a square’s perspective on Netherfriends’ lifestyle. In 2011, Netherfriends released a ambient meditation record entitled Alap, made a record of the silliest Nilsson samples ever written, and took it upon himself to redo the score from the film Baraka – you know, just make it more drone-y and ambient. He is a songwriting and touring machine that spent last year on a 50 state tour, writing and performing songs with musicians in each state.

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Head over to Netherfriends’BandCamp page to check out all the releases.